Akagera National Park

Akagera is Rwanda's savannah park, a strip of acacia country, swamp and papyrus lakes along the Tanzanian border that looks nothing like the rest of the country. It is the most visited of the three national parks. Lions were brought back after being wiped out in the war years and black rhino followed, so the full set of large mammals is here again, with elephant, buffalo and giraffe on the northern Kilala plain. Lake Ihema carries a scheduled boat that runs through hippo pods and crocodiles. Nearly five hundred bird species are recorded, and the shoebill is the one everyone wants.